Tratado do melhoramento da navegação por canães, onde se mostrão as numerosas vantagens …traduzido para a portugueza … por Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrade Machado da Silva ….

Lisbon, Na Officina da Casa Litteraria do Arco do Cego, 1800.. First Edition in Portuguese. 4°, nineteenth-century quarter black calf over marbled boards (some rubbing), flat spine with gilt bands and red lettering piece, gilt; marbled endleaves. Fore-edge uncut. Slight soiling on title page. Overall in fine condition. (8 ll.), 114 pp., (1 blank l.), 18 engraved plates [some folding; numbered 1–12, 13a, 13b, 14–17]. *** First edition in Portuguese of Fulton's A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, Exhibiting the Numerous Advantages to be Desired from Small Canals, and Boats of Two to Five Feet Wide ..., published London, 1796. The Treatise was the first major published work of the celebrated American inventor, engineer, and painter Robert Fulton. Born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1765, Fulton left for England in 1786, not returning to the United States until 1806. Under the patronage the Duke of Bridgewater, Fulton spent much of his time studying boat propulsion and canal improvements. The latter are documented in the Treatise, where Fulton advocates the development in England of an extensive system of inland waterways, discusses their construction and operating costs, and describes various inventions designed to facilitate canal operation.Fulton's work found favor throughout Europe. It was soon translated into Portuguese with the express wish that its ideas could be exploited both in Portugal and in Brazil. The Tratado faithfully reproduces the elegant plates of the London edition, which were engraved after Fulton's own designs. They depict not only types of canal machinery, but also the proper design of canal boats and of large wooden and cast-iron bridges. The engraver was Inácio José de Freitas, who executed a number of other works at the Arco do Cego.The translator and editor, Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrade Machado da Silva (1773-1845), was born in São Paulo, studied at the Universidade de Coimbra, and returned to Brazil, where he held various government posts. A staunch supporter of Brazilian independence, he was a ringleader of the failed 1817 Pernambuco revolt. The Tratado is one of several works he translated for the Arco do Cego press.This text was published at the Arco do Cego press (officially the Tipografia Chalcografica, Tipoplastica e Literaria, located in Lisbon at the Arco do Cego), established in 1799 at the insistence of D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, Minister of State, who realized the need to spread information on new techniques in the arts, design, industry and agriculture, as well to disseminate some new scientific, historical and literary works. He proposed to do this by publishing both original works and Portuguese translations of recent foreign works on these subjects. The director of the press was the Franciscan Father José Mariano da Conceição Veloso (1742?-1811), cousin of Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, better known as Tiradentes. Father Veloso a native of Minas Geraes, noted botanist, and author of the celebrated Floræ Fluminensis, and O Fazendeiro do Brasil, among other works, was assisted by a number of young Brazilians living in Lisbon. The Arco do Cego press was well equipped, with its own foundry for making type, its own presses, and its own designers and engravers, two of whom—Romão Eloy and Ferreira Souto—later introduced the art of engraving to Brazil. The press produced a relatively large number of works, but in 1801 it was incorporated into the Regia Oficina Typografica, also known as the Impressão Regia and later as the Imprensa Nacional.*** Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional, A Casa Literária do Arco do Cego 35. Borba de Moraes (1983) II, 798; Período colonial p. 28. Sacramento Blake I, 128-9. Innocêncio I, 104. JCB Portuguese and Brazilian Books 800/6. Gonçalves Rodrigues, A tradução em Portugal, I, 2229. Cf. Sabin 26201. DAB IV, 68-72. Not in Bosch. Not in Rodrigues.